13 may 2023

John Bjarne Grover

Some words about my TEQ #512 = TEQ #2⁹ which exhibits a very interesting symmetry. The greek parallel text παρηγγελλον τη στρατια αριστοποιεισθαι is from Xenophon 'Anabasis IV, iii' - quoted from 'Xenophontos Kurou Anabasis, Dindorfii, Oxonii 1855' - the greek to this book 9 - here the fragment for TEQ #512 - is translated by me in volume 3 page 1239 as 'and told the army to get their breakfast'.

My poem mentions Arcadian - this article reports on its background in Proto-Arcadian from about the time of Ramses II and Moses of Exodus. It is seen that arcadian has e.g. the form πέσσεται = pessetai where classic attic greek has ὀπτᾶται = optatai - but only arcadian can mean of the West wind, 'to ripen fruit', or generally, 'to bring to maturity' - or the action of the stomach, digestion etc where attic (like arcadian) has only the action of fire, to cook, to dress.

There could be some interesting reflexes to this in the 'Pinea Veri law', as my poem calls it. It was long ago that I repeatedly returned to the idea of 'the smell of smoke and pine' - which I used also when translating Xenophanes (part 2 and 3 are perhaps not so interesting - in fact I suspected that these two fragments are perhaps not authentic).

Chinese has

味 wèi = smell
嗅 xiù = smell
烟 yān = smoke
松 sōng = pine tree
法 fǎ = law


   松 味   烟   法
=     song   wei       yan
= Pinea Veri law

I found the greek parallel text after I had completed book 9 in 1999, and the enumeration of TEQ was done in the summer 2012.

© John Bjarne Grover
On the web 13 may 2023